§ 10. Mr. Andrew MacKayasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what increase in take-home pay would be received by a person earning £140 per week if the basic rate of income tax was reduced from 30 to 28 per cent.
§ Mr. MooreThe increase would be £90 per week for a single person or working wife, and £39 for a married man in 1986–87, based on the illustrative allowances shown in the autumn statement.
§ Mr. MacKayIs my right hon. Friend aware that if we are really serious about trying to help the lower paid by means of any tax cuts that we make in the forthcoming Budget, the best way of going about it would be to raise thresholds and reduce national insurance contributions for those on lower pay, when the take-home pay would be much greater than that which he has just announced?
§ Mr. MooreI know that my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer will be interested in the views of my hon. Friend and others. I know that my hon. Friend wrote to my right hon. Friend on 10 December expressing some of those views in detail. Regarding the reductions in the basic rate of £1.90 a week for a single person, if the same amount were applied on thresholds for a single person, the amount would be £1.44, or 50p less.